Wednesday, August 09, 2006

For those not familiar with him, it's no exaggeration when I say I cannot recall one positive article he's written about Michigan football or Lloyd Carr since he became a full-time columnist for the Freep in 1999. Not one. I'm not kidding. I've seen more positive Michigan stories in the Columbus Dispatch than from this guy.

And look, just because you cover the local team doesn't mean you should simply slobber all over them, heaping praise at every turn without question. I enjoy Detroit News writer Bob Wojnowski who, while pro-Michigan, won't hesitate to criticize the Wolverines (and usually in a very humorous way to boot). Hell, if you're a regular reader of this site, you know that while we bleed maize and blue and are as biased as they come, next to the Buckeyes, the biggest target of our barbs is Michigan.

But in Drew Sharp's case, it's all negative all the time. Put it this way, more positive reviews exist in the world for SHOWGIRLS than there are positive articles about Michigan football written by Drew Sharp.

If you're going to be a sports columnist for a Detroit paper, is it too much to expect to throw the local college team a bone every 4 years or so? We're not talking about a team that's losing year in and year out and thus deserves criticism at every turn. We're talking about a team that hasn't had a losing season since the '60s! If all the Free Press columnist is going to do is trash the home squad, the paper should save its money and just have commenters on the O-zone email them rants from their site. The Freep would get the same hatred plus F-bombs at no cost.

The ironic thing about all this is Sharp went to Michigan. But you'd think he got wedgies every day from the entire O-line, he has such a vendetta against his alma mater.

Now, a close source has told me this stems from his days as a student in A2 when he wrote for the student paper, the Michigan Daily. Allegedly U-M's coach at the time, Bo Schembechler, kicked him out of a practice. But even if true, dude, get over it. Sharp writes like a jilted lover still not over some two month fling sophomore year in West Quad.

Worst of all, his writing isn't that strong. And when he tries to be funny, it's almost painful. Like watching the guy drenched in flop sweat constantly looking down at 3x5 cards during open mic night at the local comedy club. If you're going to rip on something time and time and time and time again, at least be clever about it.

So, with the Michigan season kicking off in just over three weeks, we can expect Drew Sharp's bile kickoff to start any day as well. As such, today begins Drew Sharp Watch 2006 here at the MZone. From his first column to his last, we'll keep track of how long it takes for him to write a positive piece about the Wolverines.

Just don't hold your breath. It could be a while. Showgirls II might come out first.

maybe he's sick of seeing them ranked in the top 10 preseason every year and then ending up losing at least 3 games. or sick of Carr losing to Tress. or sick of top 3 recruiting classes leading to mediocre results on the field and a pedestrian # of those blue chip recruits turning into players drafted by the NFL.

Yost, you read my mind on this one. I'm surprised to be the first of the MSU clan to respond, because there's not a comma I'd change of your post. The guy's a no-talent, uncreative, humorless, jerk.

Nothing good ever seems to come from his mouth regarding a college sports team in this state. He wrote a vicious column about the MSU basketball team two seasons back. Said they had no heart, etc... A few weeks later they were in the Final Four.

Ditto for football. Though there's obviously frequent room for criticism, he can't seem to get it done without getting personal.

In fact, the only person I can recall him being favorable to was Terrell Owens, last season, when the planet's worst teammate was showing his ass end to the universe.

I'm all for 'Drew Sharp Watch.' That should be a blog unto itself. He is journalism malpractice personified.

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